Posted on 11/28/2007 12:49:58 PM PST by SmithL
John Ford will ask a federal judge today to delay serving his 66-month prison sentence for bribery until either after his Nashville trial is completed next year or until his ex-wife is released from jail where she is serving a drunken-driving sentence.
The former state senator is scheduled to report Dec. 12 to a federal prison facility near El Paso, Texas, but he said that would create a hardship in preparing for his March 4 bribery trial in Nashville.
Ford, in papers filed in federal court, also said he is the custodial parent and sole provider for his four minor children - ages 2 to 15 - while his ex-wife, Tamara Mitchell-Ford, is serving a drunken-driving jail sentence of 11 months and 29 days.
He said incarceration now would leave the children without a custodial parent, Ford said.
“It would be unreasonably harsh and completely unnecessary to inflict such a fate on these children under the circumstances,” his court-appointed attorney Robert Brooks argued in a motion. “The defendant poses no danger to any person were he to remain on bond until the completion of his trial in Nashville or until the mother of his children is free, nor is he a flight risk.”
Federal prosecutors are asking Judge J. Daniel Breen to order Ford to go into custody as scheduled, arguing that he could be transferred to a federal facility in Nashville to prepare for his trial there.
In a six-count federal indictment in Nashville, Ford is accused of concealing $400,000 he received from Doral between 2002 and 2005 and another $400,000 from a second TennCare contractor, OmniCare Health Plan. He also is charged with wire fraud.
(Excerpt) Read more at commercialappeal.com ...
It would be a worse fate to place the children in the hands of their felonious, unfit parents - one of whom is in the habit of driving around drunk.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.......
“He said incarceration now would leave the children without a custodial parent, Ford said.”
The real quandry here is what’s in the childrens’ best interests?
why should he get special treatment?
As corrupt as Ford is, this is not an unreasonable request, unless there are grandparents or other close family members who could look after the children.
Five seconds on Google confirms he’s a Democrat.
I know, big shocker there. /sarc.
Can’t the kids live with one of his other baby-momma’s? Seriously, even if he is actually being a “custodial parent”, Memphis is full of Fords that could take them.
The family that fails together, jails together.
These children should be removed as far away from these two moonbats as possible.
It is a wonder that they have not already been killed in a auto wreck before now.
Their mother beat up her father. John’s parents are dead.
These kids need to be placed with people other than a Ford, so that they will have some chance in life.
Unfortunately for the children, they will likely spend the next year in foster care before being returned to their alcoholic mother.
That being the case, it may be the best thing for the children, as much as I dislike to say it, is to grant the motion.
Not a good idea in this case.
What a great excuse! Maybe he can do more crimes using this. ta like the Menedez brothers. Can't sentence them for murdering their parents because they are orphans!
So it seems as though you think I could go on a crime spree & never step inside the slammer, if I were a single parent?
By the way, this IS a conservative forum, perhaps you missed the sign on the door.
He’s going to Jail; soon enough. There was also the Enron case where the husband and wife were convicted. She was sentenced to one year in federal prison and the court agree to allow him to start his sentence when she got out so one of them could be with their young children.
What makes is an unreasonable request is how corrupt Ford is, and the fact that his wife isn't free to watch the kids because she is in jail. They don't throw you in jail for a first time DUI offense. She pretty much has to be a habitual offender and he is a felon.
They should have a family court hearing regarding this, but the first question they should be asking is should the kids be placed in foster care until the parents demonstrate that they are shaping up and acting like fit parents?
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